NetIQ Improves Security for Active Directory

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IT organizations face a number of challenges when managing, administering, and securing Microsoft Active Directory. As they push the limits of this technology, ensuring security and internal controls becomes most critical to managing user access, eliminating human error, demonstrating compliance, and improving service delivery.

To help IT meet these challenges and more efficiently manage and secure Active Directory, NetIQ Corporation released NetIQ Directory and Resource Administrator 8.5 and NetIQ Group Policy Administrator 6.1.

NetIQ Directory and Resource Administrator granularly controls and delegates administrative and end-user privileges. It centralizes auditing and reporting, automates repetitive activities (such as user provisioning and password and privilege management), and enforces security and management policies. NetIQ Group Policy Administrator provides a secure off-line repository for managing Group Policy objects, enabling IT organizations to fully exploit Microsoft Group Policy to manage their Windows environments. With advanced granular off-line RSOP modeling and analysis and multi-forest and domain support, including un-trusted domain management, organizations can better predict the impact of Group Policy Objects to their production environment, more efficiently achieve compliance, and minimize service interruptions.

To help organizations further protect and secure valuable business and user data within Active Directory, NetIQ has made the following improvements:

NetIQ Directory and Resource Administrator 8.5

Configurable auditing and reporting to clearly detail changes made within Active Directory -- including who made changes to what, when, and where -- to better identify harmful activity and protect data accuracy

Granular access control and customization that allow reports to be seen only by those whose roles specifically require access, helping to minimize the exposure of critical business data and meet auditing and reporting requirements

“As organizations more heavily rely on Active Directory to support their business requirements, the potential for service disruptions, inconsistent administration practices, incomplete data, and unnecessary security exposure increases dramatically,” commented Erin Avery, product marketing manager at NetIQ. “These latest NetIQ Directory and Resource and Group Policy Administrator releases help administrators address these challenges. By making it even easier to delegate privileges for specific administration tasks and simplifying policy enforcement with greater compliance auditing and reporting, organizations can reduce Active Directory workload as well as the risks associated with managing this critical system.”

Availability and Pricing

NetIQ Directory and Resource Administrator 8.5 and NetIQ Group Policy Administrator 6.1 are available now. List pricing for NetIQ Directory and Resource Administrator starts at $1,600 per 100 users and $900 per 100 users for NetIQ Group Policy Administrator. For more information, visit www.netiq.com.